The World: Oil and Amity

Ostensibly, the principal reason for Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin's
five-day visit to Iraq last week was to join Iraqi Strongman Saddam
Hussein Takriti at ceremonies marking the start of production at the
rich North Rumeila oilfield 240 miles south of Baghdad. Developed with
$192 million of Soviet assistance, the field, which was expropriated
from Western oil companies in 1961, is expected to produce 40 million
tons of oil a year by the end of the decade. Some of the petroleum will
be sent to the Soviet Union to supplement its diminishing domestic
supplies.